Furniture corner protector



y 1950 w. e. ANDERSON, JR 2,509,468

' FURNITURE CORNER PROTECTOR Filed July 11., 1949 INVENTOR Wuusuw- G. ANDERSON, JR.

ATTORNEYS Patented May 30, 1950 UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE "7 Claims.

The present invention relates to a protector for the corners of furniture or the legs thereof at their lower ends, particularly in connection with the shipment of furniture in crates, cartons or the like. Such crates, cartons or other enclosures or partial enclosures of furniture in themselves may cause damage to the finish of furniture, and the corner protector which I have devised is designed for placing at the corners of furniture, at upper and lower ends, also at the lower ends of legs of furniture to interpose heavy thicknesses of paperboard stock between the furniture and the enclosing cartons or crates.

It is an object and purpose of the present invention to provide a furniture corner protector which is made solely from paperboard stock, for example, corrugated paperboard, which protector, as it leaves the factory, is in a flat form produced from a rectangular sheet of paperboard stock and properly slotted and scored that it may be folded almost instantaneously into the completed protector which will have three sides, one of rectangular form and the other two of triangular form each of which has four thicknessesof the paperboard stock making heavy protective pads, the combined thickness of which may approximate and which serve to provide ample protection at such furniture corners or legs. Such protectors are applied at the lower ends of the legs or at the upper corners of furniture tops or other places where needed by merely putting them in place.

A further object of the invention is to provide such protector through a novel structure which reduces waste of material to a minimum, thereby contributing to economy of manufacture. The protectors are shipped to their places of use in flat form, a large number of them being placed together one over the other, thus reducing shipping space to a minimum.

An understanding of the invention may be had from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a plan of the furniture protector of my invention in the flat form in which it is made and as it is shipped, with the scoring or bending lines therein indicated in dash lines.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section substantially on the plane of line 2-2" of Fig. of the protector, after it has been folded into the position which it has when used.

Fig. 3 is afperspectiveview illustrating the initial step of folding the flat protector shown in Fig. 1. l

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing a succeedins step, and

Fig, 5 is a perspective view showing the finished protector ready for use.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawing.

In the construction shown, a rectangular sheet of suitable paper stock, such as corrugated paperboard, is slotted longitudinally midway between its sides, from one end for substantially one-half of its length with a relatively wide slot l, which slot is continued in a narrower slot 2 for a, distance equal to approximately one-quarter of the length of the rectangular sheet used, the slot 2 being closed at its inner end. At the end of the blank of paperboard used where the open end of the slot I is located, two triangular sections 3 and ii at one side of the slot, and identical triangular sections 3a and ta, at the opposite side of the slot, are provided by a diagonal scoring or bending line 5 from the outer corner ofsquare sections made by a transverse scoring or bending line 6, the line 5 running to the diagonally opposite corners thereof. The square sections from which the two triangular sections 3 and i and 3a and 4a are made, at their outer edges are reduced in width by cutting a narrow strip'of the paper stock from the outer end of the blank at each side thereof to the transverse scoring line 6 as shown in Fig. 1.

The next adjacent sections i and la, integral with sections l and to, respectively at opposite sides of the slot l, are substantially square in cross section reaching to the inner end of the wider slot I, where two close parallel transverse scoring or bending lines 3 areprovided, the innermost of which is directly at the inner end of the wider slot l. Such sections 7 in turn are integrally connected with sections 9 and 9a. respectively at opposite sides of the narrower slot 2, both being substantially square'in cross section, and at their inner ends coming to transverse scoring lines I 9 across the blank substantially t the innermost or closed end of slot 2.

There remains in the blank beyond the closed end of the slot 2 a rectangular portion which is divided by a scoring or bending line 52 lengthwise of the blank which extends from the inner closed end of the slot 2 to the adjacent inner end of such blank. Such scoring or bending line [2- divides the rectangular sections into two sections which are nearly square in shape and which in turn have diagonal. scoring lines it. located as shown so. as to divide the substantially square sections into. two substantially triangular portions, ll. and it, and Ma and Ida. illhesectionl M has atongue' l5 proj acting therefrom at the end? of the blank and the section I ia a recess [6 for 3 the reception of the tongue when the blank is folded into its usable form.

In folding the flat protector shown in Fig. 1 for use, the first bending is on the lines Iii to turn the end sections connected at it and it and the comparative sections la and Ma to a vertical position. Thereafter the folding is on the line l2 which is positioned vertically which brings the two adjacent sections a and 9a one over the other. In Fig. 3 the section is shown superimposed above the section flu, but the folding can be done by superimposing the section ea over the section Q, no apprehenslble difference in the result occurring.

After this is done, the triangular section Q is folded upon its adjacent triangular section 3 (Fig. 3) and then the section 7? folded upon the two lines 8 between it and the section 9, bringing section l against the section is below it, and causing the folded sections 3 and to be located against the triangular section ii, having been turned to vertical position by folding or bending upon the line 6. The section it with its tongue 15 is then inwardly bent upon the lines is to the position shown in Fig. i.

The completion is by folding the section la which may occupy substantially the position shown in Fig. at the beginning of the folding to come against the upper side of said section 7,

the triangular section le having previously been folded against the triangular section 3a by bending upon the line 5, so that the parts take the position shown in Fig. 5: except that so far as described, the bending of the section Mia to its final position is done after section la has been folded to horizontal position, in Fig. 5, and the two triangular sections and be against the section Ha of the structure. Such final folding of the section ida brings the notch or recess it into cooperative locking relation with the tongue i5, the protector being completed for use and the parts locked and held in place by such engagement.

There is thus produced a lower base of rectangular form (Fig. 5) which has four thicknesses of the paperboard stock, the lower thickness of section 9a, the upper thickness section 7a and the two intermediate thicknesses of sections '1 and 9. The vertical triangular sides at right angles to each other likewise have four thicknesses of the paper stock used, the thicknesses of the sections ii and i l and of 3 and d for one side and the comparative sections Ha, Ida, 3a and la for the other.

The protector for furniture corners or legs is very economical to produce, there being a minimum Waste of material. The folding from its fiat to its useful or operative form is accomplished very rapidly. A leg of furniture resting upon the base is protected at its outer sides by the triangular shaped vertical sides located at right angles to each other and to the base. Of course, such protector may be inverted at the corners of furniture tops and protect the top at its corner edges and upper surfaces.

The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

I claim:

1. A furniture corner protector comprising, a rectangular sheet of suitable foldable material, having a slot longitudinally thereof midway between its sides from one end toward the other end but terminating short of said other end.

said sheet being scored for folding from said end of the slot to the adjacent end of the sheet, and said sheet being transversely scored for foldin at the inner end of the slot, and also at two additional places longitudinally spaced from each other, one of said scorings being spaced from the slotted end of the sheet and the other intermediate scorings substantially midway therebetween and the first mentioned transverse scoring, thereby dividing the sheet into a plurality of generally rectangular sections, all end sections being diagonally scored for folding of one part of each section upon the other.

2. A furniture corner protector comprising, a rectangular sheet of suitable foldable material, having a slot longitudinally thereof midway between its sides from one toward the other end but terminating short of said other end, said sheet being scored for folding from said end of the slot to the adjacent end ofthe sheet, and said sheet being transversely scored for folding at the inner end of the slot, and also at two additional places longitudinally spaced from each other, one of said scorings being spaced from the slotted end of the sheet and the other intermediate scorings substantially midway therebetween and the first mentioned transverse scoring, thereby dividing the sheet into a plurality of generally rectangular sections, all end sections being diagonally scored for folding of one part of each section upon the other and the second mentioned end of the sheet having a tongue projecting therefrom at one side of said longitudinal scoring line and a notch to receive said tongue at the other side thereof.

3. A structure as defined in claim 1, said longitudinal slot bein wider at its outer portion than at its inner portion and the inner portion of said slot extending substantially from its closed end to the next adjacent transverse scoring, the sides of said slot being parallel and located symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal center line of the sheet of material.

4. A structure as defined in claim 3, the intermediate transverse scoring of said sheet comprising two lines of scoring for folding of the material parallel to and spaced a short distance from each other, one of said lines being substantially at the juncture of the inner end of the wider slot and the outer end of the narrower slot.

5. A structure as defined in claim 1, the and sections at the slotted end of said sheet of material being narrowerin width than the remaining sections, the outer edges thereof being located a distance inwardly from the outer edges of the remainder of the material sheet.

6. A structure as defined in claim 5, said diagonal scoring of said outer end sections of the material sheet extending from the inner end and the outer edge of each to the outer end and inner edge of each.

7. A structure as defined in claim 6, said scorings of the opposite end sections extending each one from the outer end of said longitudinal scoring to the outer end of the adjacent transverse scoring and a second parallel scoring outwardly from the first mentioned scoring spaced a short distance from and parallel to said first mentioned scorings.

WILBUR G. ANDERSON, JR.

N 0 references cited. 

